Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Elena is a personal finance tracking service operated by Meet Elena LLC, 250 Pierce St #203, Kingston, PA 18704 ("Elena," "we," "us"). This policy covers the Elena website at meetelena.app, the Elena web application, and related features, including Ask Elena (the "Service").

2. What we collect

• Account information: your name, email address, and password (stored securely as a hash — we can't see it), plus your two-factor login settings if you turn them on.
• Financial information you enter: income, bills, debts, savings goals, assets, credit scores you log, business transactions, and notes.
• Connected account data (optional): if you link a bank or card account, we receive read-only account details (such as account name, type, balance, and the last four digits) and transaction history through Plaid. We never receive your bank login credentials.
• Ask Elena conversations: the messages you send to Ask Elena and the responses it generates.
• Billing information: handled by Stripe. We receive your subscription status and a customer ID, never your full card number.
• Technical information: standard log data such as IP address, browser and device type, and pages visited, used for security, reliability, and troubleshooting.
• Messages you send us: if you email support, we keep that correspondence to help you.

3. How we use it

We use your information only to provide and improve Elena for you, including to:

• Create and secure your account and log you in;
• Store and display your finances, calculate totals, trends, net worth, and payoff progress, and show upcoming bills;
• Sync and categorize transactions from accounts you connect;
• Answer your questions through Ask Elena and provide alerts and summaries you choose to receive;
• Process your subscription and send account, trial, billing, and security emails;
• Keep the Service safe, prevent fraud, and fix problems; and
• Comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your financial data for third-party advertising.

4. Bank connections (Plaid)

If you choose to connect a financial account, the connection is made directly between you and Plaid Inc. ("Plaid"), a financial data network used by many banking and finance apps. You enter your bank credentials with Plaid or your financial institution — never with Elena. Plaid then shares your account and transaction data with Elena on a read-only basis. Elena cannot move money.

The access tokens Plaid issues to us are encrypted at rest and can only be used by our secure backend systems — they're never exposed in your browser. You can disconnect a linked account at any time from your dashboard, which immediately revokes Elena's access with Plaid. Plaid's handling of your data is described in its End User Privacy Policy at plaid.com/legal.

5. Ask Elena & AI processing

Some Elena features use artificial intelligence provided by Anthropic, PBC (the Claude AI models):

• Ask Elena: when you ask a question, we send your message and the relevant parts of your Elena financial data needed to answer it to our AI provider, which generates a response.
• Transaction categorization: transaction descriptions and amounts may be sent to our AI provider to suggest categories.

Our AI provider processes this information on our behalf to deliver these features and, under our agreement with it, does not use your data to train its AI models. We don't send your name, password, or full account numbers to our AI provider. Ask Elena conversation history is stored in your account so you can refer back to it, and you can delete it at any time.

6. Who we share it with

We share information only with service providers that help us run Elena, and only as needed for them to do so:

• Supabase — secure database hosting and authentication;
• Plaid — bank and card connections you choose to make;
• Stripe — subscription payments;
• Anthropic — AI features described above;
• Hosting and email providers — to serve the website and send account emails.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of our users or others, or as part of a merger or sale of our business (in which case this policy's protections would continue to apply to your information).

7. How we protect it

• Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest.
• Row-level security in our database ensures only your authenticated account can read or write your records.
• Optional two-factor login adds an extra layer of protection.
• Bank access tokens are encrypted and only usable by our backend.
• Payments are handled by Stripe's PCI-compliant infrastructure.

No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to protect your information and will notify you as required by law if a breach affects your data.

8. Cookies & local storage

We use essential cookies and local storage to keep you signed in and remember your preferences. We don't use third-party advertising cookies or trackers.

9. Retention & deletion

We keep your information while your account is active. You can permanently delete your account at any time from Settings in your dashboard. Deleting your account immediately revokes any bank connections with Plaid and deletes your financial records, connected-account data, transactions, and Ask Elena history. Deletion is enforced at the database level, so it flows through every table that holds your data.

We may keep limited records where required by law — for example, billing records kept by Stripe for tax purposes. You can also request deletion by emailing support@meetelena.app. We review this retention policy at least once a year and whenever we materially change how we handle data.

10. Your rights & choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, download, or delete your personal information, and to opt out of certain uses. You can do most of this directly in the app, or email us at support@meetelena.app and we'll respond within the time required by law. We won't treat you differently for exercising your rights. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time.

11. Children

Elena is only for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Elena grows. We'll post the new version here and update the date at the top. If a change is material, we'll let you know by email or in the app before it takes effect.

13. Contact us